Laity As Reconcilers

Editor: Sometimes, even with the passage of many years, an opinion stands the test of time. This article is an example of just such an opinion, first expressed in an editorial in the La Salette International Publication, Reconciliare, from December of 1967, just two years after the close of Vatican II.

In the entire history of our Congregation, no truth has been more expounded and believed, no conviction has been more commonly stated, than our role as reconcilers. We have been a religious Institute founded for the specific purpose of converting sinners and of increasing “the number of souls devoted to Jesus Crucified and to Mary, the Mother of Sorrows” (older La Salette Constitutions, #2). In this context, to reconcile means to engage actively in the pursuit of those spiritually far-away souls who have abandoned religion and decided to go it alone, or of any Christian whose sole claim to Christian fame is the name. Is this our reason for existing as a Congregation? Is this our role in the Church?

 

Are La Salettes Cornering the Market on Reconciliation?

It would seem to us that this particular facet of reconciliation has been overemphasized, whether it be in official letters, in conferences, in sermons, in position papers, or in chapters. The impression is sometimes given that we are about to corner the reconciliation market, that our patents are no longer pending, and that any use of the word “reconcile” outside of Scripture is clearly a heinous violation of a La Salette copyright.

In point of fact, any priest, religious or diocesan, is by the very nature of his baptism and his priesthood, a reconciler. Any Christian, as we shall see, not only has a right, but also a sacred duty to be a reconciler among his fellow humans. The conversion of sinners is a universal apostolate, a common concern, proper to us as well as to every other member of Christendom, of whatever persuasion.

Laity’s Rightful Place in the Church

These considerations, I realize, might be cause for some dismay. The reconciling of sinners is such an attractive apostolate, so firmly set in the wake of the messianic mission of Jesus, so much a part of the concept of Redemption, that any true follower of Christ would willingly claim it as his own special sphere of action. But dismay can give way to enthusiasm and a renewed sense of purpose when the process of reconciliation is examined more thoroughly.

First, every reconciled, or justified, Christian remains in need of conversion. These converted faithful cannot halt the process of their own reconciliation after having parted the confessional curtain on the way out. Conversion is a multi-tiered structure and the people who inhabit its higher reaches are the Church's most valuable supernatural resource.

Secondly, these converted Christians are to be spurred on and taught the missionary role that became theirs on the day of their baptism. The priest, no matter how holy, remains what Christ made him, a human instrument. The ambition to lavish personal attention on each and every sinner, of having the whole of Christendom pass through the confessional box, and of reconciling the world to Christ by dint of absolution is clearly visionary. There is no doubt that this same goal can be achieved, but not by the means currently in use. In the face of such a task, could the Spirit have left the Church without the means to begin it and see it through?

Thirdly, the human means needed by the Church are already in existence. The world has just lived through the experience of Vatican Council II, which became an eminently layman's Council. By its voice, the Spirit recalled the central importance of the layman and the pivotal role that is his by right in the reconciliation of the world to Christ:

“The laity derive the right and duty with respect to the apostolate from their union with Christ their head. Incorporated into Christ's Mystical Body through baptism and strengthened by the power of the Holy Spirit through confirmation, they are assigned to the apostolate by the Lord himself” (Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity, Chapter 1, #3).

If a Christian layman possesses an inherent right and duty with respect to the apostolate, and further, if he is assigned to this apostolate by the Lord himself, any significant abdication from this role, any shirking or negligence of this duty can only result in very grave harm to the Church (Matt 21:18-22; 25, 14-31).

Many important tasks go begging in the Church because of a persistently obdurate notion that any real apostolate must be accomplished by the clergy and in some instances, by an Eminent Catholic Layman. The lot of the common, ordinary laity, it is said, is the beautiful, noble one of offering the witness of their daily life before the world. In fact, doesn't the main difference between clergy and laity consist in their different relationships to the world? But there is something more:

“There are innumerable opportunities open to the laity for exercise of their apostolate of making the gospel known and men holy...

“However, an apostolate of this kind does not consist only in the witness of one's way of life; a true apostle looks for opportunities to announce Christ by words addressed either to non-believers leading them to faith, or to believers with a view to instructing and strengthening them, and motivating them toward a more fervent life. ‘For the love of Christ impels us’ (2 Cor. 5, 14), and the words of the Apostle should echo in every Christian heart: ‘For woe to me if I do not preach the gospel’” (1 Cor. 9, 16) (Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity, Ch. 2, #6).

In spite of this background of invitation and entreaty from Scripture, of ream upon ream of fervent pleas from Popes and Bishops, we are still faced not only with scattered groups of Catholics who have not heard or have disregarded the call, but with nations and continents who have ignored it. A great measure of guilt can be attributed to the clerical ranks of the Church for this neglect. We have taught our Christians some religious truths, instructed them on the subject of sacraments and virtues, but we have failed, it would seem, to reveal a most important facet of the faith: that this faith must be “exported” outside oneself; it is a perishable commodity if it is withheld as one's strictly personal property.

Laity’s Need for a Broader Spirituality

Our Catholics, for the most part, have inherited and conserved a very minimal view of religion: avoid sin, especially mortal sin, and hell. An accent on one's personal spiritual life, his own personal perfection, his own personal salvation has always characterized the Christian life of the Catholic faithful as a whole. Of course, there is more. There is also the neighbor's salvation.

The renewal that is so often written on and spoken of in this post-conciliar time must begin with the inner man. Nevertheless, all our clerical energies must be exerted to combat the worst evil of the day, this “inner-joy” inertia, this cloying religiosity that is nothing less than spiritual narcissism. We are taking away from our lay people their candles, their relics and indulgences, their statues, but we are leaving them with a looking glass with which to strut and swagger.

Why couldn't we La Salettes launch a major effort, not in the search of the black sheep, but in the gathering of the so-called good sheep, the one standing there in the fold, cozy and comfortable, and who does not know what to do with his warm woolen coat. This white sheep observes the com-mandments faithfully, he loves Christ dutifully, but he has forgotten his less fortunate brother who is standing outside untended and unprotected.

La Salettes and the Laity

Our work as reconcilers must not be considered finished after a surface conversion. The full exercise of the apostolate of reconciliation does not consist solely in hearing a confession and guiding a lost soul back to the path of good intentions and good dispositions. The reconciler must also help the faithful fulfill his potential as a Christian. He must help him “live” his baptismal grace. Isn't this particular grace, in fact, missionary, sacerdotal and prophetic? Our reconciling role in the Church will have been completely played only when we have opened before our faithful the wide horizon of their Christian vocation. The importance of this apostolic vocation is vigorously stressed in chapter IV of the “Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity”:

“The individual apostolate, flowing generously from the wellspring of a truly Christian life, is the origin and condition of the whole lay apostolate, even in its organized expression, and admits of no substitute” (#16).

“Regardless of circumstance, all lay persons (including those who have no opportunity or possibility for collaboration in associations) are called to this type of apostolate and obliged to engage in it. Such an apostolate is useful at all times and places, but in certain circumstances it is the only one appropriate and feasible” (#17).

The La Salette community could therefore exercise a special apostolic role in the Church, that of being a catalyst for the ever present reconciling powers of our lay people. The reasons impelling us toward this vital role can be briefly summarized:

1. 1. The unprecedented urgency with which the Church has pressed the layperson's cause and his role in the world;
   2. The inherent duty of every baptized Christian to participate fully in the apostolate;
   3. The mathematical impossibility facing clergy and hierarchy to focus individual attention on every Christian in need of spiritual help and reconciliation;
   4. The severe drought of (religious and priestly) vocations everywhere throughout the world. (Instead of viewing this phenomenon as a catastrophe, couldn't we see it as a sharp prompting of the Spirit who is not only urging, but forcing the laity to assume his apostolic responsibilities. These should not be pacifiers, limited to the lector, bookkeeper and diocesan-board variety, but ought to include more immediate person-to-person duties as urged in the decree on the laity).

La Salette Shrines as Centers of Reconciliation

The Missionaries of Our Lady of La Salette could play a vital part in this marshaling of lay energies. The whole tenor and flavor of the message of La Salette should encourage us to go forward in this endeavor. The Church is presently engaged in the difficult tasks of reform and renewal. This process would be immeasurably hastened if a group or a religious family were to initiate a new attempt: that of a reawakening of the entire People of God to an apostolic awareness of his brother's spiritual needs.

Every La Salette house and residence could, in this way, be a center of reconciliation, fulfilling this role in its own way and compatibly with its own original function. Saint and sinner alike would be welcome. Nevertheless, a solid core of lay apostles could be selected to spearhead this effort, to organize it and to launch it. Retreats, conferences, seminars, round-table discussions, Cursillos, individual counseling and direction—every means could be employed to impress upon the visiting faithful the critical urgency for brisk apostolic action.

One overriding resolve should inspire us: to drive into the subconscious mind of our lay “reconcilers” the conviction that they have not come to this conference, retreat, etc., especially to foster their own personal spiritual growth, (although growth there must be) nor to increase their devotion or to acquire this or that special virtue, but to become worthier, more able agents of reconciliation. Their initial attitude, upon arrival, is of lesser importance. But, upon leaving a session, they should be imbued with a sense of mission founded upon a desire to lead all people to Christ.

It was brought out, in the course of some chapter deliberations how the ministry of the La Salette Missionaries is very intimately linked with places of pilgrimage. We usually associate shrines or places of pilgrimage with a goal to be reached, the end of a journey. But, we might add, it should also be a point of departure, a launching place from which the reconciled, go forth to become reconcilers, striving not only to nurse a closely guarded state of grace, but to make full, intensive use of their grace of state.

There is every chance that we, as a religious family actively engaged in this firing of the reconciling spirit in our laypeople, would experience the blessed awareness of accomplishing a vital task in the Church. We too could be reconcilers committed to the full-time pursuit of renewing the secular city and doing it with more dispatch and more depth than would be possible in decades of ministerial effort.

Our Lady of La Salette gave us a valuable example in this regard. There were, in France and in Europe, myriads of bishops, priests, and religious to whom she could have given her message. She chose to confide it to the care of two unimportant cowherds, to children taken from among the com-mon folk. She gave her message to two young laypeople.

People are always looking for ideals. Here is one ideal looking for people.